Fox News wants to sue me! :-D (18)
Lol, alright so I registred some shitty blog just like max 7 days ago and ripped some content from some other crappy viral site to use that blog (bluefoxnews) as a "white page" for cloaking campaigns....
I just received this nice mail threw my whois guard protected namecheap mail:
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to you on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and its related entities, including Fox News Network (collectively "Fox"). Fox is the exclusive owner of, inter alia, U.S. Trademark Reg. Nos. 1840919, 1924143 and 2318595 (for goods and services including "providing on-line services") for FOX, and Reg. No. 2469849 for FOXNEWS.COM (all collectively the "FOX Mark"). By virtue of their longstanding use in the United States and elsewhere, the FOX Mark has long since become famous. Fox owns and operates the http://www.foxnews.com/ website (the "FOX Site").
It has come to our attention that you own and operate the http://bluefoxnews.com/ website (the "Infringing Website"), which uses the FOX Mark without authorization on a site offering news stories (the "Infringing Use").
Your use of the FOX Mark on the Infringing Website and in the Infringing Use creates consumer confusion because users encountering the FOX Mark and/or those familiar with the FOX Site will assume that Fox sponsors, endorses, or authorizes the use of the FOX Mark and/or the contents of your site, when it in fact does not. Accordingly, the Infringing Website and Infringing Use violate Fox’s trademark rights and constitute unfair competition under the Lanham Act. See 15 U.S.C. § 1114 and § 1025.
We therefore demand that you immediately:
1. Permanently cease all use, display or distribution of the FOX Mark in any manner whatsoever, including but not limited to; in the Infringing Website; in the Infringing Use; on all websites that you own, control or post on; in domain names; on all social media sites; in emails; and in advertisements in any media;
2. At your own expense, assign the http://bluefoxnews.com/ URL to Fox;
3. Identify the total revenue that the Infringing Website and Infringing Use have generated to date, and,
4. Confirm in writing to the undersigned no later than February 6, 2017, that you have complied with the foregoing.
Should you fail to comply with the above demands by the close of business on February 6, 2017, we will consider taking all appropriate action against you without further notice to you.
This letter is without prejudice to Fox’s rights and remedies, all of which are expressly reserved.
Very truly yours,
/Kasimira C. Verdi/
Kasimira C. Verdi
Director – Intellectual Property
Fox Group Legal
foxip@fox.com
Ok... so first of all, .... lol?! I mean, even I'm thinking this is the biggest bullshit ever but its like typical american sue shit. Now... what I'm really concered about is all the stress? Moving the domain to FOX .... "Identify the total revenue" lol ..... "Confirm in writing to the undersigned no later than February 6, 2017, that you have complied with the foregoing." ...
What should I do? Based in Germany with an official company... Sadfully not India.
I'm obviously no legal expert and can't tell you what to do , but here's what I would do in your situation:
Getting a new domain for your site , getting rid off the Bluefoxnews domain name , taking the hosting offline , taking offline name , logo , social sites and whatever else is associated with it. Basically point 1) they asked for. Then not replying to their email. I think the chances they go after you are extremely small in this case.
^^^^^ gotta agree. Better safe than sorry, get rid of it asap and find an alternative! I am guessing it's not worth the risk looking at the purpose you use it for.
Since you are in Germany that honors international copyright treaties, do not ignore this. Definitely take the domain and the host down. I'm with kepe95 on the next step, I believe that taking it offline will do the job.
For the future, if you ever decide to walk this route again, definitely don't use your real info to register such domains.
thanks for the replies... well to be honest I didn't even think one second that it would cause any problems with foxnews.... just looked for some random dumb name for a fake news site and thought it sounded easy... however will redirect now the domain to foxnews.
For your sake don't just ignore this. That would be very stupid.
Originally Posted by mr vexos
I add a few similar issues with expired domains I used for SEO with others brand like Marlboro (all bought automatically by a bot without human check).
Each time, I've changed the domain registrant, take down the website and push the domain name to an other account.
Each time I didn't get any other follow up on their demand.
There is plenty of services now where a brand can be notified if someone use their brand on a new domain, and pretty much all the time that kind of email is sent.
Really, take down anything on that domain, but ALSO push the domain to an other account at your registrant, because if there is any further trouble you do not want all your domains on that account to be blocked in the same process...
Yea. Just ignore it.
"Out of sight, out of mind", as the saying goes.
Send it into junk folder. lol
I'm not evenly remotely surprised that you got this when using "foxnews" in the domain.
The film industry is pretty much at the top of the pile when it comes to companies/industries that are aggressive with trademark and copyright infringement, and using a trademark term in the domain makes it pretty damn easy for an automated system to find your domain within hours of it being registered.
As others said... I'd just comply and move on, it's not worth the potential trouble when they can basically come after you as easily as you can duplicate a campaign in your traffic source.
Its not just the domain, dude is using tons of Fox News trademarks all over his site. I'd take it down ASAP and give them whatever they want. And definitely talk to a lawyer.
change all the logos and anything that infringes on the copyright, don't take chances they have enough money to bury you for the next 100 years.
I'd take it down, and change the dns so it the site doesn't load. They will claim the domain anyway after, but won't sue you because suing you costs way more money than settling anyway.
It could be a competitor trying to throw you off. Find a way to verify if the email is legit. Call them and ask if that email is their procedure to sue.
Take it down and get rid of this shit instantly. And next time, there's a reason many of the nutra guys use registrars and hosting that's payable with bitcoins.
Take that shit down right away.
Never buy a domain name with any trademark in the actual domain name. I've gotten e-mails like this back in the day of Whatsapp PIN submits. I bought some domains like whatsapp-updateservice.com or whatever which always resulted in these e-mails. However if you buy com-updateservice.com and then add a subdomain called whatsapp so it reads http://whatsapp.com-updateservice.com you'll be good... I don't think fox has checked your site for copyright infringement on the content istelf, they just care about whats in the domain name. Also having foxnews in the domain for your safesite for cloaking is also probably not a good idea to begin with 
Also you can ask namecheap to remove your ownership of the domain, so it becomes available to buy again after a bit of time.
Originally Posted by nirvana
Works 99% of the time
If it makes you feel better I'd remove the content and redirect the domain. If you transfer ownership of the domain you need to know where to transfer it to (nameservers), which forces you to reply to the email which means you acknowledge that you received the email.
Home > General > Affiliate Marketing Forum